Hi reader!
This is issue #2 of The Stackless Newsletter.
JavaScript is about to change. On March 2, the newest version of the Chrome web browser ships with import maps, a language feature that seems obscure but is key to buildless JavaScript.
No more Node or NPM for browser JavaScript. To install libraries of third-party code, we use NPM for server-side JavaScript, which is the package manager for Node. To get packages in browser JavaScript, we 1) install Node and NPM, 2) create a package.json file, 3) install packages using npm or Yarn, 4) and use Webpack or Rollup or Parcel to bundle JS for use in the browser. Import maps are about to change that. I'll explain why, but first I want to highlight the importance of packages and look at the problem of package management in the browser.